Endocrine Abstracts

Objective: In order to determine the plasmatic levels of leptin in adult Wistar rats (90 days +7 days) which had undergone specific types of stress, a prospective study was done in which the stimulus was presented in the proestrus stage and the samples, recovered by decapitation 24 h after the initial stimulus, were centrifuged and stored for analysis of leptin by radioimmunoassay (RIA).Methods: The rats were divided into four groups: Group I (...

Introduction: Insulinomas are pancreatic endocrine tumors originating in the beta cells, characterized by hypoglycemia resulting from insulin hypersecretion.Objectives: To characterize the demography, the clinical features, imagiological findings and pathological evaluation of the cases of insulinomas identified in the previous 35 years at São João Hospital.Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the cases diagnosed as insul...

Diabetes prevalence has been worryingly growing in recent decades, reaching pandemic proportions. Genetic and environmental factors play a role in diabetes aetiology. While the genetic background may predispose individuals to the disease, environmental factors, including exposure to chemical pollutants that can disrupt metabolic functions (also known as metabolism disrupting chemicals or MDCs), may act as triggers to diabetes development. Despite growing evidence suggesting a ...

Introduction: Primary thyroid lymphoma is rare and accounts for less than 5% of all thyroid malignancies. The risk is almost 60 times higher in those with thyroiditis and is more common in females, with a ratio of 4:1. The most frequent local symptom is a rapidly enlarging thyroid gland along with the resultant obstructive symptoms. Fine needle aspiration is the initial diagnostic procedure for thyroid tissue sampling. The main differential diagnosis is anaplastic thyroid carc...

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether SUR2A (sulfonylurea receptor type 2A, ABCC9) MEF2a (myocyte enhancer factor-2a) and HIF1a (Hypoxia-inducible factor-1) can influence glucose uptake in oxidative muscle soleus by regulating GLUT4 expression.Methods: Insulin resistance was induced in male Wistar rats by inducing obesity with monosodium glutamate (MSG). At the age 3 months, half control and MSG-treated animals started receiving 0.1...

Introduction: GLUT4 protein is the most important isoform of glucose transporters in skeletal muscle. Reduction in its content and/or translocation is related to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus. In skeletal muscle cells there is also an ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channel with two subunits, sulfonylurea receptor type 2A, ABCC9 (SUR2A) and KIR6.2 (KCNJ11). In pancreatic B cells, this channel triggers insulin secretion in response to the rise in glucose levels...

Phaeochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PPGLs) are rare neuroendocrine tumours with marked genetic heterogeneity, being the most inherited human tumour described so far. Around 40% of patients will be a carrier of a germline mutation in any of the know PPGL genes, and thus, for years most of studies have been performed on germline DNA. Findings from genetic testing in tumour DNA has dramatically changed the scenario. Nowadays, it is as relevant to make the screening on the germ...

Introduction: Graves’ disease is the leading cause of hyperthyroidism in the adult population. Antithyroid drugs (ATD) are the first choice worldwide, however, after an initial treatment course of 18-24 months, almost 40-50% will relapse. In these cases, current guidelines suggest a second course or prolonged use of ATD as an option. Recently, the study of quality of life (QOL) has obtained great importance, since the QOL in hyperthyroid patients is very affected. However...

Background: Diabetes mellitus is mainly characterized by a dysfunction of glucose metabolism. The growth of diabetes mellitus as a chronic condition requires continuous management and requires health services to implement care strategies. Diabetes education and self-care competence have been recognized over the last few decades as essential for patients with diabetes mellitus to achieve positive treatment results.Objective: To compare self-care competenc...

Introduction: Hypogonadism is common and occurs prematurely in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected men, being hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (HH) more frequent. However, HH with very low testosterone has not been described. We present three HIV-infected men with severe HH and normal pubertal development.Case report: Three HIV-infected men, with HIV-1 diagnosis at the ages of 22, 34 and 35 years. Two of them had depressive syndrome, one treated wit...